JUST WHEN you thought the presidential campaign couldn’t get any more bizarre — just when you thought American politics might finally have exhausted the possibilities for cynicism and irresponsibility — certain Republican Party insiders have begun developing strange new respect for the candidate whose meteoric rise only yesterday made him the bane of “the establishment”: Donald Trump.
For all his quirks, the rationalization goes, the billionaire businessman is a man you can do business with. “Regardless of what your concern is with Trump,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) mused, in a typical expression of this new theory, “he’s pragmatic enough to get something done.” And so, if you can’t lick him, join him: At least he wouldn’t be inflexible ideologically and off-putting personally, like the only GOP candidate with an apparent chance to stop him — Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.).
